Ahead of the upcoming monsoon session, Congress parliamentary strategy group meets

Ahead of the monsoon session of the parliament, the Congress parliamentary strategy group meeting, chaired by interim president Sonia Gandhi, began on Tuesday. Rahul Gandhi, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kodikunnil Suresh, Gaurav Gogoi, Manish Tewari, and Anand Sharma, among others, attended the meeting held via video conferencing.

This meeting also comes as the Congress has been vehemently rebuking the 'No question hour' decision. The decision to cancel Question Hour in the Monsoon session of Parliament beginning September 14 amid the coronavirus pandemic has caused consternation among Opposition Members of Parliament (MPs)

Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh on Sunday sought to take a moral high ground on the row over the scrapping of Question Hour in the Monsoon session of Parliament. Ramesh recalled that he would look forward to Question Hour during his tenure as a Union Minister. Furthermore, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Akhilesh Prasad Singh raised a question over the significance of a Parliament session if the government would not take questions on China, the economy and the COVID-19 pandemic.

READ: Monsoon session of parliament to be held from Sept 14 to Oct 1 with COVID norms in place

Monsoon session will begin from September 14

Parliament's monsoon session will begin from September 14, said a notification issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat. The notification issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat said President Ram Nath Kovind has called the lower house to meet on Monday, September 14 at 9 AM. Sitting in the Upper House will be held from 3 PM to 7 PM. On subsequent days, proceedings in Rajya Sabha will be held from 9 AM till 1 PM while the time for Lok Sabha sittings has been fixed from 3 PM to 7 PM.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat further said that the change is only for the monsoon session and the Question hour will be back in the winter session. There will be in total 18 consecutive sittings with no holiday or weekend break, according to officials.

READ: TMC's Derek O'Brien slams 'No Question Hour' decision in Parliament monsoon session

COVID-19 precautions

Taking in stock the COVID situation, the government is looking to strictly adhere to all COVID-19 related standard operating procedures (SOPs), including social distancing and sanitization. A proposal for changing the rules for entry of journalists in the Parliament premises is also being considered owing to COVID-19 pandemic.

It is also looking to change the timings of both the Houses to prevent any overcrowding in the Parliament premises at any point of time.  There are also proposals to install an ultraviolet irradiation system in the air-conditioning unit to kill germs and viruses. 

READ: Opposition to devise joint strategy for Parliament session to corner Centre: Sources

READ: Monsoon session of Parliament won't have question hour due to COVID; starts September 14

(Inputs: ANI)